Daughters of the Cross: or Womans Mission | Page 6

was
new and strange. To the whole matter she gave a careful and prayerful
consideration. She divested the great subject as far as possible from all
romantic drapery, and looked upon it in its true light. For a while her
mind was in a state of perplexing doubt and fear, and the thought of
leaving her own land was terrible. While considering the conflict in her
mind, we should remember that the cause of missions was in its infancy;
that no one had ever gone forth from our shores to preach salvation by
grace in heathen countries; that those who were agitating the subject
were branded as fanatics, and the cause itself was subject to unjust
suspicions and contempt; consequently the subject had an importance
and awfulness which it does not now possess. The way has been broken,
and all good men acknowledge that the heroism of the missionary
woman is grand and sublime. The decision made by Harriet Atwood
was different from that made by others in after years, inasmuch as she
had no example, no pattern. She realized that the advice of friends,
biased as it was by prejudice and affection, could not be relied upon;
and, driven to the throne of God, she wrestled there until her course of
action was decided and her mind fixed intently upon the great work
before her. Her resolution to go to India was assailed on every side.
Those to whom she had been accustomed to look for advice and
counsel, friends on whose judgment she had relied, shook their heads
and gave decided tokens of disapprobation. But the question was

finally settled. On one side were the gay world, her young associates,
her kind relatives, her own care and comfort. On the other side stood a
bleeding Savior and a dying world. To the question, "Lord, what wilt
thou have me to do?" she heard the response, "Go work to-day in my
vineyard;" and when she looked forth upon the harvest, white for the
reaper's hand, she hesitated not to consecrate on the altar of her God her
services, her time, her life.
When this decision was once made, she conferred not with flesh and
blood. Her reply was given to Mr. Newell in firm, decided language;
and up to the hour when her spirit took its flight from earth to heaven,
we have no evidence that she had one single regret that she had chosen
a life of self-sacrifice. Her language was,--
"Through floods and flames, if Jesus lead, I'll follow where he goes."
Through duties and trials, through floods and flames, she passed,
shrinking from no danger and shunning no sacrifice. Conscious of right,
she quailed not before the tears of friends and the scorn of foes; but
alike in duty and in danger followed the footsteps of her Savior, until
her wasting body was decomposed and her spirit taken up to dwell with
the just men made perfect.
To a friend in Beverly she writes as follows: "How can I go and leave
those who have done so much for me, and who will be so sorry for my
loss? How can I leave my mother here while oceans roll between us?
How can I go with but little prospect of return? And how can I stay?
We are under solemn obligation to labor for God; and I must go to
India at any sacrifice. I owe something to my perishing fellow-men; I
owe something to my Savior. He wept for men--he shed tears over
Jerusalem.
'Did Christ o'er sinners weep? And shall our cheeks be dry?'"
At this time her letters to Mr. Newell breathe forth the most devoted
missionary spirit, and exhibit her firm determination to do her highest
duty and discharge her great mission at any sacrifice--at the cost of
separation, tears, and death. And required it, think you, no effort to
bring her mind into this godlike state? Cost it no toil to discipline the
heart to such sore trials? Most certainly it demanded toil and effort; and
many a visit to the cross was made, and many a view of the bleeding
Savior obtained, ere she could turn her back on home and all that the
young heart holds dear in this life, to labor and die far away over the

rolling sea.
And we doubt if any other motive can be found so powerful as this to
move the Christian heart to obedience. There is an inexpressible
efficacy in the cross to bring all the various opposing elements into
subjection, and produce order in the place of discord and opposition.
With the cross the early disciples went forth, not as the crusaders went,
with the sacred symbol on banners, and badges, and weapons, but
wearing the spirit of the cross like a garment,